


promises are made to be broken

by OniKaizoku (whiteranger)



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Bitter!Buggy, Canonical Character Death, Competent Buggy (One Piece), Feels, Gen, Kinda, badass!buggy, everyone else is just mentioned, just barely, takes place before canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28173156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteranger/pseuds/OniKaizoku
Summary: Buggy visits Logue Town five years after Roger's execution
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	promises are made to be broken

Buggy will never admit to missing the Grandline, not even to himself. Though it isn’t truly the Grandline he misses. Buggy stares up at the execution scaffold. He misses Captain Roger. He misses being Shanks-and-Buggy, Buggy-and-Shanks. Hell he misses the rare occasion Rayleigh would deign to train him instead of focusing on Shanks, even after Buggy decided to focus on knives. He misses the days when he thought Captain was right-- nakama are all you need.

But Roger’s head hit the ground in Logue Town. In the same town square Buggy stands in now. And Buggy isn’t dumb! Garp did not catch Roger. Buggy knew better, but he reached out with his haki before the blades came down. Roger was weak, but not enough to have lost. Not yet. And Buggy was too close; Captain’s head rolled, that all encompassing warmth ended with a whisper. The ringing silence worse even than the Edd War for how close Buggy was holding him. The brightest signature in the square ended and Buggy choked convinced his had too. Buggy pushed out of the square unable to see through the tears.

Of course that was five years ago and now Buggy is sprinting, ducking through alleyways and cursing himself for being so caught up in memories that he didn’t notice the marine’s magma bastard in time to slip away without being recognized. Though Buggy does toss a quick thanks to Davy Jones that it isn’t the light bastard who is too quick for Buggy to outrun. Buggy can feel the fresh burn on his back that is almost certain to scar. Buggy speeds up when he sees the end of the alleys; wider streets mean he needs even more of a head start to stay out of sight. At the last moment he changes his mind, jumping towards the dumpster instead. Buggy holds his haki signature even tighter staying hidden until his pursuer has gone too far to sense him. Buggy gets up, stands in the little alleyway a few meters away from some random Logue Town street on the fifth anniversary of ~~his father’s~~ ~~his captain’s~~ Roger’s execution and he is angry.

He remembers the day Roger declared he was leaving-- begging Roger to reconsider, he knew what Roger meant now, Buggy could be good, Buggy could fight for nakama instead of treasure. He remembers Roger’s stupid smile, “You’ll find other nakama to fight for, it doesn’t have to be the Roger Pirates.” Remembers the times Rayleigh told him to stop being a cry baby. Remembers the promise that Shanks-and-Buggy made: to train and return on the anniversary to start their own crews together. Remembers five years without the barest hint of Shanks Haki. Remembers the new bounties labeled Akagami Kaizoku-dan. 

Buggy slips onto a ship as it is pulling up anchor and makes a new promise to himself staring Logue Town down: The Buggy Kaizoku-dan will be the richest pirates in the world, and they will never visit Logue Town.


End file.
